


Fantasies

by Imagine036



Series: Losing Sleep (and other things) [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Felicity's Past, inappropriate thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 01:46:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2563733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imagine036/pseuds/Imagine036
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When she turns to face him, her expression is almost apologetic. “I’m sorry, Oliver. There are a lot of things I will do for you, but facing Ray Palmer isn’t one of them.”</p>
<p>Written during the summer hiatus, so obviously none of the happenings of season 3 apply. Oliver and Felicity are heading for a meeting but when Felicity discovers who it's with, she bails, leaving Oliver confused and looking for answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fantasies

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Arrow does not belong to me!

“Oh no,” Felicity whispers, stopping in her tracks and plastering herself back against the wall. If Oliver’s reflexes weren’t so honed, he wouldn’t have noticed the halt in their progress as they rounded the corner.

 

“Felicity?” He asks, frowning and backtracking a step to stand in front of her. He’s careful not to invade her personal space like instinct begs.

 

Her eyes are wide with shock and her head is shaking as though it will erase whatever’s got her so worked up. She’s muttering to herself a mile a minute until he reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder, breaching the distance and bringing her back to reality.

 

“Hey, what’s going on?”

 

“You didn’t tell me we were meeting with _Ray Palmer_!” She hisses. They’ve come to see the new CEO of QC at his request, Felicity there for moral support.

 

He blinks, confused. “How did you- wait, do you two… know each other?”

 

“Knew,” she corrects, raising a finger in the air between them. “We _knew_ each other.”

 

The next question on his mind is obviously _how_ they knew each other and why she looks like she’s about to be sick, but she’s pushing herself off the wall in the next second, schooling her features into some semblance of calm. It’s alarming how quickly she pushes it all underneath the surface.

 

“I’m just going to go… anywhere else. I can’t go in there. I can’t see him. I’ll just, uh, wait downstairs. Outside. Yes, outside. Get some air…” She mutters, already heading back to the elevator. “Air is good.”

 

“Felicity!” He snaps at her retreating back, trying to keep his voice low.

 

She doesn’t stop, sighing in relief when the elevator opens immediately. When she turns to face him, her expression is almost apologetic. “I’m sorry, Oliver. There are a lot of things I will do for you, but facing Ray Palmer isn’t one of them.”

 

Before he can do more than process the words, the doors are closed and he’s left to attempt to compose himself before heading in to the meeting with Palmer.

 

* * *

 

When he finally emerges onto the street, it’s to the sight of Felicity pacing in front of the building, the skirt of her purple dress swishing around her legs with every agitated step.

 

Spotting him, she stops abruptly. “How did it go?”

 

His face must answer her question, because her hopeful expression drops. Honestly, he doesn’t really care about how badly the meeting went at the moment. He’s a bit more concerned with her disappearing act.

 

“Want to tell me what the hell that was in there?” He asks.

 

She cringes. “Not particularly.”

 

And just like that, she’s off walking again and he’s left to catch up. He calls after her, finally getting her to stop and face him.

 

She looks defeated. “You didn’t tell him about me, did you?”

 

“No,” he answers, already regretting having to burst her bubble of relief. “But he asked where you were.”

 

“He knew…” She mutters, and then throws her hands up at her sides. “Of course he knew.”

 

“Felicity,” he interrupts her quickly derailing verbal train, placing his hand on her shoulder once more. She looks up at him, her eyes a storm of reluctance and anxiety. “What is going on?”

 

She takes a deep breath, and then another, letting her eyes close briefly before looking off to the side. “Ray and I… knew each other at MIT,” she hedges.

 

“You dated,” he fills in the blank while trying (probably unsuccessfully) to keep the emotion out of his voice.

 

Her cheeks tint faintly pink and she nods. “I guess you could call it that.”

 

At that, Oliver raises an eyebrow. She’s making this sound a lot less innocent by the second.

 

“Ugh this is so embarrassing…” She mumbles. “I mean, you wouldn’t think it would be since you’re, you know, you. No offence, but you have a pretty… intense track record, so really what’s admitting a little student/teacher relationship in the grand scheme of things? I’m sure _you_ did it.”

 

He’s pretty sure he’s stopped breathing. Just the images that conjures in his head are enough to completely shut his brain down for a second until he can forcibly move it away from that danger zone.

 

“Er, no. That wasn’t ever something I did,” he admits, somewhat awkwardly. He only says it because she appears to be looking for some sort of confirmation.

 

“Oh, well… that’s… unexpected,” she replies, licking her lips. His eyes dart down to them momentarily before he reminds himself he can’t do that. “I guess he wasn’t really a professor at the time. I mean, he was on track to become one. He was getting his PhD and was assisting one of my actual professors, but that just means he lectured and graded papers and was essentially the professor.”

 

He’s having trouble processing this information. Never once has he thought of Felicity as the kind of woman who would have a ‘forbidden’ affair. His brain is short circuiting and it’s taking every ounce of self-control in his body to suppress the images popping into his head. Felicity with her glasses and short skirts, coming to his office for late night help with a tricky assignment question. She sits in the chair, the fabric riding up her thigh as she leans across the desk, pointing at the portion she’s having trouble with. The way her arms rest on the desk pushes her breasts together as they strain against the buttons of her shirt. She’s left one too many buttons undone, exposing just the right amount of cleavage to drive him wild…

 

“Oliver!” She snaps him back to the present, her eyes narrowed.

 

“Sorry…” He apologizes, embarrassed. Realizing his hand on her shoulder is _not_ helping matters, he pulls back quickly, turning to precede her down the cement stairs.

 

Unsurprisingly, she isn’t deterred, catching up to him in a few quick steps and manoeuvring in front of him. Her hand is on his arm and he’s starting to feel suffocated by the urge to kiss her.

 

“What just happened? Please tell me you aren’t judging me right now,” she pleads, “Because I don’t want to sound all bitchy, but I don’t judge you.”

 

“Felicity, I am _not_ judging you.” Just the opposite, in fact.

 

Her shoulders relax at his words and she runs a hand over her ponytail. “Good. I don’t think I could handle a near run-in with Ray _and_ being judged by the ultimate reformed man-whore all in one day.”

 

His lips twitch in amusement and they resume walking to the car. “What exactly happened with you two anyway? You make it sound like it ended badly.”

 

“It did,” she says. “A fellow student… A guy I thought was my friend reported it because he was mad I beat him on the exam. I failed the class and Ray got fired… I haven’t seen him since.”

 

So that explains her reaction. It doesn’t, however, explain why Palmer was asking after her, or why he seemed almost disappointed that she wasn’t there today. Whatever is going on here, Oliver doesn’t like it one bit.

 

* * *

 

By the time Felicity decides to call it a night, Oliver almost breathes a sigh of relief. Watching her at her desk, pen between her lips, swivelling in her chair is enough to drive him mad. All he can think about is stalking over to her, flipping her chair around and having his way with her right there on the desk. He’s sure Palmer did it more than once.

 

He doesn’t know why it’s this, of all things, that makes it so hard to restrain himself. Maybe it’s the knowledge that she had a sense of risk and danger before him, or maybe it’s just that he’s never been confronted with anyone from Felicity’s past, nor with the confirmation that she does indeed have a past… Ignorance truly is bliss.

 

The fact is that he knows he loves her and wants her with every fiber of his being, but he’s never let himself truly imagine everything that entails. There’s been a wall in his mind separating love from sex but her confession regarding Ray Palmer has demolished it. Now, he’s left to deal with the consequences.

 

He doesn’t sleep properly for a week with the fantasies now crowding his mind.

**Author's Note:**

> so I wrote this a while ago and actually thought I'd posted it already. Guess I was wrong! This was a result of reading all the summer speculation that Ray and Felicity knew each other in some capacity before he came to Starling. Now, obviously that turned out to be wrong, but oh well. Still fun to be had!


End file.
